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Veronica: The Autobiography of Veronica Lake
In Hollywood's wildest years, a precocious beauty from Brooklyn, with an unruly mop of hair over one eye, burst on the scene to become an overnight star. In a brief period of time she made twenty-six pictures, became one of the country's top box-office attractions, and then disappeared. After twenty years of rumors, the same girl made headlines when she was "rediscovered" as a waitress in a New York restaurant. Now she makes perhaps the boldest headlines of all with this book--for these are the uninhibited reminiscences of Constance Ockleman, who was made by Hollywood into Veronica Lake.
281 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1969
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659 people want to read
About the author
Veronica Lake
20 books3 followersThere is more than one author named Veronica Lake; these details refer to the actress Veronica Lake (born Constance Frances Marie Ockelman).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
September 9, 2019
By far one of the strangest Hollywood autobiographies I've ever read... It's up there with Swanson's Moore's, or Hepburn's for me, but far more self-critical, dark, and explicit. Lake offers a pretty stark outlook of Hollywood, and dives pretty deeply into the workings of the star machine. She really did not go at the pace that Hollywood set― if she didn't want to do something, she didn't. She didn't mind being labeled as a "bitch" because she really didn't care. Lake also is very forthright about her alcoholism, and the last half of the book deals heavily with her decline. After a series of bad marriages, she is pretty destitute and shacks up with a drinking buddy (a sailor) she met at the hotel bar she was bartending at. Some evenings she would see her movies on the TV in the bar, but she enjoyed her job and never dwelled on being an ex-movie star. At one point, she also explicitly details pleasuring her sailor boyfriend, which is a first for a Hollywood autobiography for me. She really didn't give any fucks and didn't seem to have any true hang-ups― she knew who she was and didn't mind if the world accepted her or not. In 1973 Veronica Lake passed away, looking very much older than her 50 years due to countless years of hard drinking, but her glamorous image and peek-a-boo hairstyle will live on.
November 22, 2025
Lately I have been fascinated by Veronica Lake and so I picked up her autobiography to get a little more details on her life. And while I was not disappointed, the book, as her actual life and career, contained great highs, as well as tragic lows. The first 2/3 of the book was a really good review of her life growing up and then her fame as a Hollywood actress. The last 1/3 of the book, as was her life, was a complete disaster. She died at age 51 of cirrhosis of the liver and her life and career spiraled as she became consumed by drink. Sure there were some nice things in that last 3rd of her life but on the whole it was sad to see how far she plummeted. But she wrote everything head on and you cannot fault her for being truthful, but one one wonders how much of the truth was still tempered by her drinking problem.
May 3, 2023
Once again, my high expectations for a book have let me down. From the blurb, I thought this would be an honest, insightful autobiography. And it is honest, all right, but also frustrating.
Veronica Lake was not an actress, she was a star. She admits to not having the desire to act until she was pushed into it by her stage mother, and recognizes that she was a product of the Hollywood star machine. Her brief reigning period took place in the early-to-mid 1940s, brought on (of all things) by her hairstyle.
The problem is that what she had in honesty, she lacked in self-awareness. After describing her encounters with the casting couch (to which she didn’t cave), she backtracks and praises the founders of Hollywood for their entrepreneurial spirit. She doesn’t seem to find anything wrong with this practice, her tone remaining matter-of-fact throughout. Is it because she was raised in a different time with different morals? Probably. But she never contemplates the effects her experiences with sexual harassment and sexual assault (including one with a Catholic priest when she was a child) have had on her.
Another frustration comes from the fact that she refuses to accept she’s an alcoholic, mentioning in passing that she went on drinking binges when problems arose, which contributed to her career decline. She stays in denial, likely due to the stigma and misconceptions surrounding addiction. I can’t blame her for this; I just wish she had gotten the help she needed. Veronica Lake died four years after the publication of this book from alcohol-related illnesses, aged only 50.
Her personal life was troubled even by Hollywood standards: her second child was born premature and died after a week. She addresses this in a few paragraphs; one would think that such a tragic event would have had more impact than she’s willing to admit. To make matters worse, the father of the baby (first husband John Detlie) seldom visited them at the hospital, thus missing the death of their son. He had been an insecure husband, jealous of Veronica’s fame, and had wanted to confine her to the roles of housewife and mother; she had tried to nurse his fragile ego, to no avail.
Her second marriage, to film director André DeToth, is the stuff of nightmares. He promised he would make great movies for her, freeing her from some of the tripe she had to endure under the studio system. But he soon revealed himself to be controlling, taking over her career and finances. After a few years, she discovered that DeToth had not only rejected job offers on her behalf without telling her that such offers were even on the table, but he had also bankrupted her. DeToth never took responsibility for his actions, always believing he knew better, and after her death he distorted the truth, portraying himself as a hero who tried but failed to save Veronica Lake from her demons.
Despite my qualms about Veronica the book, I liked its namesake. She comes across as unpretentious, sensitive (despite her best efforts to appear tough), and dryly funny. Like everyone else, she made mistakes (the worst of them being an absent mother to her children) but seemed an essentially good person who was ill-equipped to deal with the hardships of life.
Then again, we all are.
Veronica Lake was not an actress, she was a star. She admits to not having the desire to act until she was pushed into it by her stage mother, and recognizes that she was a product of the Hollywood star machine. Her brief reigning period took place in the early-to-mid 1940s, brought on (of all things) by her hairstyle.
The problem is that what she had in honesty, she lacked in self-awareness. After describing her encounters with the casting couch (to which she didn’t cave), she backtracks and praises the founders of Hollywood for their entrepreneurial spirit. She doesn’t seem to find anything wrong with this practice, her tone remaining matter-of-fact throughout. Is it because she was raised in a different time with different morals? Probably. But she never contemplates the effects her experiences with sexual harassment and sexual assault (including one with a Catholic priest when she was a child) have had on her.
Another frustration comes from the fact that she refuses to accept she’s an alcoholic, mentioning in passing that she went on drinking binges when problems arose, which contributed to her career decline. She stays in denial, likely due to the stigma and misconceptions surrounding addiction. I can’t blame her for this; I just wish she had gotten the help she needed. Veronica Lake died four years after the publication of this book from alcohol-related illnesses, aged only 50.
Her personal life was troubled even by Hollywood standards: her second child was born premature and died after a week. She addresses this in a few paragraphs; one would think that such a tragic event would have had more impact than she’s willing to admit. To make matters worse, the father of the baby (first husband John Detlie) seldom visited them at the hospital, thus missing the death of their son. He had been an insecure husband, jealous of Veronica’s fame, and had wanted to confine her to the roles of housewife and mother; she had tried to nurse his fragile ego, to no avail.
Her second marriage, to film director André DeToth, is the stuff of nightmares. He promised he would make great movies for her, freeing her from some of the tripe she had to endure under the studio system. But he soon revealed himself to be controlling, taking over her career and finances. After a few years, she discovered that DeToth had not only rejected job offers on her behalf without telling her that such offers were even on the table, but he had also bankrupted her. DeToth never took responsibility for his actions, always believing he knew better, and after her death he distorted the truth, portraying himself as a hero who tried but failed to save Veronica Lake from her demons.
Despite my qualms about Veronica the book, I liked its namesake. She comes across as unpretentious, sensitive (despite her best efforts to appear tough), and dryly funny. Like everyone else, she made mistakes (the worst of them being an absent mother to her children) but seemed an essentially good person who was ill-equipped to deal with the hardships of life.
Then again, we all are.
February 15, 2023
To be honest with you, I probably half confuse Veronica Lake and Lana Turner, but this is an interesting autobiography from the star of SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS and THE BLUE DAHLIA (the only films of hers I've seen.) There's a brief flash of glory, and a long decline after that. The introduction says she is coy on her drinking problems, but I think she's surprisingly open about her alcohol consumption and the troubles it gives her.
Published in 1969 (although obviously written before, as the BATMAN tv show is still a thing), she says the top male star of the day is a homosexual, while the top female star is an asexual who smokes pot alone. I'm assuming the former is Rock Hudson, but who's the latter? I know this is her repeating scurrilous gossip, but I'm fascinated nonetheless.
Published in 1969 (although obviously written before, as the BATMAN tv show is still a thing), she says the top male star of the day is a homosexual, while the top female star is an asexual who smokes pot alone. I'm assuming the former is Rock Hudson, but who's the latter? I know this is her repeating scurrilous gossip, but I'm fascinated nonetheless.
February 4, 2024
An autobiography, yes from Veronica Lake, written many years ago in 1969, but re-produced so fans of today can read this long lost book.
To me as a movie fan, a sad read, Veronica throughout the book tells you she is happy with her life, but a life filled with many marriages, tragedy, failures no support from Hollywood, a career that disappeared so quickly, and never returned. Hollywood, producers, actors all turned their back on her.
"What a sense you have for finding trouble and entering into it.”
Veronica Lake remains one of Hollywood’s greatest icons, from movies like Sullivan’s Travels and The Blue Dahlia. Her trademark ‘peek-a-boo’ blonde hairstyle, partly hiding one eye, is a legend in its own right, but her blend of beauty, ice cool persona and dry comedic style makes the actress a timelessly magnetic screen personality.
The persona hid a tumultuous personal life, and this memoir holds nothing back. Born Connie Ockleman, the actress owed the soubriquet ‘Veronica Lake’ to a producer’s inspiration. She was a tough Brooklyn kid, with an ambitious stage mother calling the shots in her early life. After early successes in beauty pageants, the diminutive Connie headed to Hollywood, where, despite her headstrong nature, she became Hollywood’s biggest ‘it’ girl of the 1940’s.
But after brushes with the casting couch (she didn’t succumb), a string of doomed marriages, troubled relationships with her children, and remarkable stardom and fortune, Veronica Lake suffered a rapid fall from grace—ending up bankrupt and alcoholic in New York City. Happily she rediscovered her acting career in live theatre and enjoyed living in Miami for most of her final years, before she died aged only 50 in 1973.
This remarkable memoir (1969), a slalom of highs, lows, comedy and heartbreak, was co-written with Donald Bain. It has been out-of-print, rare and sought-after for many decades. Dean Street Press is proud to reissue it now, with a new introduction by broadcaster and writer Eddie Muller.
A remarkable sad and shocking , short life, who was working for hardly any money as a bartender, living in the hotel, very low paid theatre roles, a life with no money.
To me as a movie fan, a sad read, Veronica throughout the book tells you she is happy with her life, but a life filled with many marriages, tragedy, failures no support from Hollywood, a career that disappeared so quickly, and never returned. Hollywood, producers, actors all turned their back on her.
"What a sense you have for finding trouble and entering into it.”
Veronica Lake remains one of Hollywood’s greatest icons, from movies like Sullivan’s Travels and The Blue Dahlia. Her trademark ‘peek-a-boo’ blonde hairstyle, partly hiding one eye, is a legend in its own right, but her blend of beauty, ice cool persona and dry comedic style makes the actress a timelessly magnetic screen personality.
The persona hid a tumultuous personal life, and this memoir holds nothing back. Born Connie Ockleman, the actress owed the soubriquet ‘Veronica Lake’ to a producer’s inspiration. She was a tough Brooklyn kid, with an ambitious stage mother calling the shots in her early life. After early successes in beauty pageants, the diminutive Connie headed to Hollywood, where, despite her headstrong nature, she became Hollywood’s biggest ‘it’ girl of the 1940’s.
But after brushes with the casting couch (she didn’t succumb), a string of doomed marriages, troubled relationships with her children, and remarkable stardom and fortune, Veronica Lake suffered a rapid fall from grace—ending up bankrupt and alcoholic in New York City. Happily she rediscovered her acting career in live theatre and enjoyed living in Miami for most of her final years, before she died aged only 50 in 1973.
This remarkable memoir (1969), a slalom of highs, lows, comedy and heartbreak, was co-written with Donald Bain. It has been out-of-print, rare and sought-after for many decades. Dean Street Press is proud to reissue it now, with a new introduction by broadcaster and writer Eddie Muller.
A remarkable sad and shocking , short life, who was working for hardly any money as a bartender, living in the hotel, very low paid theatre roles, a life with no money.
November 17, 2022
I have rather mixed emotions about this book. On one hand, I really liked the honest, straight-forward way in which she tells the story of her life. On the other hand, the second half of the book was really depressing.
The first half was exactly what I was hoping for--stories about her life and films in the Hollywood of the 1940s. Although she didn’t comment on but 20 of her films, I enjoyed the little behind-the-scenes look at her most famous ones, along with the stories of some of her co-stars.
The second half of the book shows a woman becoming an alcoholic, and at the same time, denying it. But, through it all, she comes across as a very likable and honest human being who I would like to have known. Like the rest of us, what she wanted most was peace, and I don’t believe she found very much of it.
I’m not really sure if I can recommend this to folks who are big fans of the screen star, Veronica Lake. I didn’t find a lot of hope coming through her words, which really saddened me. This is one of those rare books where the first half is fantastic, but the second half takes a lot out of you. If you’re interested in the stories behind the movies and the making of the star, read the first half, but if you’re sensitive and prone to depression, skip the rest. That’s the best advice I can give on this one.
The first half was exactly what I was hoping for--stories about her life and films in the Hollywood of the 1940s. Although she didn’t comment on but 20 of her films, I enjoyed the little behind-the-scenes look at her most famous ones, along with the stories of some of her co-stars.
The second half of the book shows a woman becoming an alcoholic, and at the same time, denying it. But, through it all, she comes across as a very likable and honest human being who I would like to have known. Like the rest of us, what she wanted most was peace, and I don’t believe she found very much of it.
I’m not really sure if I can recommend this to folks who are big fans of the screen star, Veronica Lake. I didn’t find a lot of hope coming through her words, which really saddened me. This is one of those rare books where the first half is fantastic, but the second half takes a lot out of you. If you’re interested in the stories behind the movies and the making of the star, read the first half, but if you’re sensitive and prone to depression, skip the rest. That’s the best advice I can give on this one.
April 26, 2010
This book is averagely written and gives good coverage of Veronica's Hollywood years and just after as well as her marriages, but if you're looking for insight on just how she ended up homeless and dying of hepatitis you'll have to look elsewhere as... obviously, this book was written before then. As a narrative and piece of writing, I could really only recommend it to true Old Hollywood fans.
November 10, 2020
The extremely messy life of
Veronica Lake detailed by the woman who lived it.
Veronica Lake detailed by the woman who lived it.
May 17, 2021
Lake wrote this book in the late '60s to pay for the distribution of an indie film in which she played a nurse who reanimated the corpse of Hitler in order to throw flesh-eating maggots in his face. That is the best reason to write a book, if you were wondering.
But the autobiography itself is disappointing (especially in comparison). It starts off well: her (ghostwritten) prose is agreeably direct and bracingly downbeat as the famously 'difficult' (non-conformist) Lake takes aim at Hollywood hypocrisy, frothy star vehicles and – most enjoyably – Fredric March.
But she speeds through the film years – bizarrely dismissing The Glass Key as the least of her collaborations with Alan Ladd –and then spends an endless amount of time talking about how awful her son is, and the terminal physical decline of a sailor with whom she was in love.
It is also, inescapably, the memoir of an alcoholic, and one who isn't quite candid enough for it to be valuable.
But the autobiography itself is disappointing (especially in comparison). It starts off well: her (ghostwritten) prose is agreeably direct and bracingly downbeat as the famously 'difficult' (non-conformist) Lake takes aim at Hollywood hypocrisy, frothy star vehicles and – most enjoyably – Fredric March.
But she speeds through the film years – bizarrely dismissing The Glass Key as the least of her collaborations with Alan Ladd –and then spends an endless amount of time talking about how awful her son is, and the terminal physical decline of a sailor with whom she was in love.
It is also, inescapably, the memoir of an alcoholic, and one who isn't quite candid enough for it to be valuable.
August 11, 2022
A solid 4.5/5. I’ve long been fascinated by both Veronica Lake and her roles, especially I Married a Witch. The writing in this book was fantastic in its conversationalist tone and Lake’s clear eyed honestly. Still, the one blind spot of her own drinking problem (especially considering her death) was a bit sad to see compared to every other area where she’s almost brutally frank. Still, one of the best accounts of just how unfair the studio system was, especially in its treatment and dismissal of its denial stars. Long live peek-a-boo bangs!
December 5, 2024
There's something about a Scorpio woman, whether it's Louise Brooks, Grace Slick, or Veronica Lake. They bring a certain air of mystery to themselves without even trying. It's simply there, and Veronica Lake's autobiography reads like a mystery from start to finish. Even when she hits the skids as a waterfront saloon drunk towards the end it reads like a David Goodis novel.
For all the drive she showed at the start of her career most of her success came from the men she worked with, i.e. Preston Sturges nagging Rene Clair to cast her in I Married A Witch (Clair didn't believe Lake could play comedy until Sturges screened Sullivan's Travels for him), a producer telling Lake to quit pushing her hair away from her face (a legendary hairstyle is born), etc.
Then there's her four marriages, interesting because most men and women go for a certain type, but all four husbands had absolutely nothing in common with each other. Her marriage to director Andre De Toth reads the most painful as he interfered with her career while he was out of work.
Veronica Lake's story has a melancholy feeling all the way through, like a real-life version of Gavin Lambert's Inside Daisy Clover. You feel bad for her for not being more famous, but also because she just didn't care, either. Missed opportunities and low ambition.
For all the drive she showed at the start of her career most of her success came from the men she worked with, i.e. Preston Sturges nagging Rene Clair to cast her in I Married A Witch (Clair didn't believe Lake could play comedy until Sturges screened Sullivan's Travels for him), a producer telling Lake to quit pushing her hair away from her face (a legendary hairstyle is born), etc.
Then there's her four marriages, interesting because most men and women go for a certain type, but all four husbands had absolutely nothing in common with each other. Her marriage to director Andre De Toth reads the most painful as he interfered with her career while he was out of work.
Veronica Lake's story has a melancholy feeling all the way through, like a real-life version of Gavin Lambert's Inside Daisy Clover. You feel bad for her for not being more famous, but also because she just didn't care, either. Missed opportunities and low ambition.
November 26, 2023
Praise be, Veronica Lake and her gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous HAIR!!! 😍
February 29, 2024
She’s not short on her opinions. I disagree with most of them. To each their own.
July 15, 2021
I was surprised to find this on the shelf at my local library as I hadn't even known Lake had written an autobiography (actually, it's co-written with Donald Bain). She's amazingly open and indiscreet, which is what you want from an autobiography, even if it gets a little too personal at times! The writing style is not particularly good, but I've read a lot worse. The main thing is that the book delivers in telling you what you probably want to know - what it was like being so young and famous in the golden age of Hollywood, why her film career came to such an abrupt end and how she ended up working as a cocktail waitress and appearing in the infamous 'Flesh Feast.' Lake comes across as very likeable and irreverent, but it's clear she was also her own worst enemy, having an unfailing ability to marry the wrong guy and seeking solace in alcohol.
April 8, 2020
Good Read
You feel very sorry for this woman who was an alcoholic and lost it all. She never went in depth about some incidents which I would have loved to know.
You feel very sorry for this woman who was an alcoholic and lost it all. She never went in depth about some incidents which I would have loved to know.
July 20, 2025
The last line of this book was Long live short hair. That was interesting. Shows her wit and cynicism about life.
This book was a ride. I'm shocked someone like the YouTube channel Be Kind Rewind didn't do a video on Veronica Lake yet.
It's a good book. It shows what it was like to work as an actress in the peak of the studio system, being closer to its darker underbelly, since she was not the most famous.
She got as honest she could, which was far, given some serious lack of self reflection skills.
She said what she did, but there were some moments that needed way more evaluation.
Veronica was one of those people gifted with natural looks, and acting talent. She was sought after, handed roles, albeit too uniform and constricting. She fell victim to her image.
There was even an incident much like the Marilyn skirt blowing scene, long before that happened.
But, much like her time, the idea of manipulating or contaminated relationships was not known. She said, early in the book, she had an affinity for sick men, much like her stepfather. She loved her stepfather, though he is hardly mentioned. I suspect she was attracted to the opposite of her domineering, exploitative mother.
Marriage came at 17, when she was far too young, and, soon after, motherhood. What she said about her kids was appalling. She said her daughter was disagreeable, after her divorce, because the girl lacked a father figure. Yet, in the same chapter, it was obvious Veronica had no interest in being a mother. She never acknowledged how it messed up her kids, up until the end of her life.
Her marriages and family life really messed with her, and she never acknowledge so. One bonkers chapters was when she took a solo pilot flight across the country. At some point, apparently, she got her pilot's license. She was careless and almost killed herself and her assistant a few times, ending up in getting her license being revoked. I think she was suffering from depression, and had suicidal ideations. She was seeking a thrill to get away from her bad marriage and restrictive studio life, which turned into an avenue for her depression to nearly take her.
Then there was the fact she was so bad at handling money. She made a lot, and blew it, like a smoking addict taking to cigarettes. She lost her house, and seemed to not care, happy to have an excuse to leave Hollywood.
Had she bothered to learn anything about finances and business, she could have started her own ventures, but she just bounced through life, until the chance for this book came up. In the end, she did not know her greatest legacy would be inspiring sex symbol Jessica Rabit; something I'm sure she would've hated.
This book was a ride. I'm shocked someone like the YouTube channel Be Kind Rewind didn't do a video on Veronica Lake yet.
It's a good book. It shows what it was like to work as an actress in the peak of the studio system, being closer to its darker underbelly, since she was not the most famous.
She got as honest she could, which was far, given some serious lack of self reflection skills.
She said what she did, but there were some moments that needed way more evaluation.
Veronica was one of those people gifted with natural looks, and acting talent. She was sought after, handed roles, albeit too uniform and constricting. She fell victim to her image.
There was even an incident much like the Marilyn skirt blowing scene, long before that happened.
But, much like her time, the idea of manipulating or contaminated relationships was not known. She said, early in the book, she had an affinity for sick men, much like her stepfather. She loved her stepfather, though he is hardly mentioned. I suspect she was attracted to the opposite of her domineering, exploitative mother.
Marriage came at 17, when she was far too young, and, soon after, motherhood. What she said about her kids was appalling. She said her daughter was disagreeable, after her divorce, because the girl lacked a father figure. Yet, in the same chapter, it was obvious Veronica had no interest in being a mother. She never acknowledged how it messed up her kids, up until the end of her life.
Her marriages and family life really messed with her, and she never acknowledge so. One bonkers chapters was when she took a solo pilot flight across the country. At some point, apparently, she got her pilot's license. She was careless and almost killed herself and her assistant a few times, ending up in getting her license being revoked. I think she was suffering from depression, and had suicidal ideations. She was seeking a thrill to get away from her bad marriage and restrictive studio life, which turned into an avenue for her depression to nearly take her.
Then there was the fact she was so bad at handling money. She made a lot, and blew it, like a smoking addict taking to cigarettes. She lost her house, and seemed to not care, happy to have an excuse to leave Hollywood.
Had she bothered to learn anything about finances and business, she could have started her own ventures, but she just bounced through life, until the chance for this book came up. In the end, she did not know her greatest legacy would be inspiring sex symbol Jessica Rabit; something I'm sure she would've hated.
July 26, 2022
Veronicaby Veronica Lake with Donald Bain (Citadel Press 1971) (Biography) (3670).
This is the autobiography of the 1940’s Hollywood blonde bombshell Veronica Lake. It was written three years before she died. Untreated alcoholism and mental illness caused her to fall from exaltation, fame, and fortune to ignominy and disgrace.
Her voice, as told to ghostwriter Donald Bain, sounds exactly like that of an alcoholic. She has axes to grind, and she minimizes her part in her own troubles.
She was almost destined to fail, for she was raised by a wolf of a mother.
Veronica Lake seems to have been the queen of narcissism. At the very least, she was blind to the needs of those around her.
She was certainly unsuited to be a mother. She bore four children; her first two pregnancies occurred while married to John S. Detlie from 1940 to 1943. Their first child was a daughter named Elaine who was born in 1941. When Lake soon learned that she was pregnant for a second time, she reported that she “went out and got drunk.” This second pregnancy certainly complicated things, for she had been physically separated for an extended period from her then-husband John Detlie, and both she and her husband realized that it was simply not possible for Detlie to have fathered the forthcoming baby. After trying unsuccessfully to induce a miscarriage, Lake delivered a premature son name Anthony who lived for one week before dying. Lake recounts bitterly the fact that Detlie, the husband she had very publicly cuckolded, failed to rush to her side in support of her when the child died.
Following her eventual divorce from Detlie in December of 1943, Lake had this to say about her family life and her relationship with her then-two-year-old daughter Elaine: “My divorce from John set me adrift. It was a strange feeling being free of family commitments. I’m not forgetting Elaine. But you don’t answer to your child when you’re out all night and come in the next morning in a state of happy, drunk fatigue.” (p.127). (WTF? Daughter Elaine was how old?)
She recounts that her third pregnancy (by a different father) resulted in the birth of a son named Michael. She has this to say about baby Michael: “Little Mike was a problem from the first day. He loved to cry and never hesitated.” (Veronica, p.155).
While working as a cocktail waitress in New York under an assumed name, she died in 1973 at the age of fifty.
What a mess of a minimum of three generations of lives.
My rating: 7/10, finished 7/25/22 (3670).
August 20, 2021
I was excited to find this reprint of the long out of print memoir of Veronica "Trainwreck" Lake. I had no idea how messed up she was until reading this. It ranks up there with memoirs by other batshit crazy celebrities like Tatum O'Neal, Gene Tierney, Eddie Fisher, Vivien Leigh, Ava Gardner etc. The kind of memoir where you are constantly shaking your head in disbelief at all the poor decisions they are making. I can only take so many of these types of memoirs before I need to read a memoir by a celebrity who doesn't throw away their good fortune with both hands (See Helen Hayes, Rosalind Russell, Maureen O'Hara, Karl Malden for memoirs by people who did it 'right').
The Hollywood parts of the book are great. She gives a good amount of details about various people in the industry and the films she made. I was happy to hear that Preston Sturges was as awesome as he seemed to be based on his memoir and his excellent movies. And who knew Fredric March was such an ass?
The most painful parts of the book deal with her marriages and her children. She hardly writes about her kids at all, but what she does mention is telling. WOW. She was an absolutely horrible parent. The story about how neither she or her ex-husband wanted their 14 year old son and how they kept flying him back & forth from NYC to LA.....both refusing to pick him up from the airport. I googled the son. He died in 1991 in his mid forties. Poor guy. He didn't stand a chance with such alcoholic narcissists for parents. From what I could find out from Google, her two daughters managed to make decent lives for themselves, even though they were raised by wolves.
It's tragic that her alcoholism destroyed her career. She was great in Sullivan's Travels and I Married a Witch and The Glass Key. Who knows what other great movies she could have made if she had made better life choices?
The Hollywood parts of the book are great. She gives a good amount of details about various people in the industry and the films she made. I was happy to hear that Preston Sturges was as awesome as he seemed to be based on his memoir and his excellent movies. And who knew Fredric March was such an ass?
The most painful parts of the book deal with her marriages and her children. She hardly writes about her kids at all, but what she does mention is telling. WOW. She was an absolutely horrible parent. The story about how neither she or her ex-husband wanted their 14 year old son and how they kept flying him back & forth from NYC to LA.....both refusing to pick him up from the airport. I googled the son. He died in 1991 in his mid forties. Poor guy. He didn't stand a chance with such alcoholic narcissists for parents. From what I could find out from Google, her two daughters managed to make decent lives for themselves, even though they were raised by wolves.
It's tragic that her alcoholism destroyed her career. She was great in Sullivan's Travels and I Married a Witch and The Glass Key. Who knows what other great movies she could have made if she had made better life choices?
February 5, 2021
Written just 3 years before she died, Veronica is a lightly edited 1st person account of a Hollywood star who would have been better off if she had stayed far away from Hollywood. I bought this book because the forward for the reissue was written by Eddie Muller, the founder of the Film Noir Society. His information fills in a few blanks that are left by Miss Lake's account. Her life story, which is raw and almost unfiltered, is heartbreaking. Failed marriages, drinking that eventually killed her, and estrangement from her children are just some of the highlights. I didn't know much about Veronica Lake before I read this. It seems that she was a huge star only briefly, after which her career fell into a death spiral from which she would never really recover. It's very moving to read her forthright admittance of her poverty, and touching when she writes that she mostly wanted to be alone in her old age. (She was only 47 when she wrote this, and she died at the age of 50!). Her book ends with her looking toward the future, little knowing that she had so little future left. Would she have led a different life had she known how it was going to end? Was brief Hollywood superstardom worth the price? One can only guess at what Miss Lake's response to those questions would have been. Sad as this book is, I'm glad I read it. It gives insight into the fiery personality that, very briefly, exploded onto movie screens worldwide.
April 13, 2021
A very good read. Like many autobiographies, it lacks the objectivity of a biography written by a third party (for example, there are no references to comments like Joel McCrea's 'life is too short for two films with Veronica Lake') but in exchange you do get the thoughts and feelings of the individual concerned. I think Lake has been pretty candid about her life and career and although she does not go into depth about the tough times she does not brush them aside, either. Its the story of how tomboy Connie Ockelman became the ravishing movie star Veronica Lake in less than 10 years and if her rise was meteoric so was her fall, because 10 years or so later her film career was virtually over - probably because she gained a reputation - as it says in the preface - for being 'trouble on set and inebriated off it'. There are accounts of how her famous hairstyle was created, of how ecery morning Bing Crosby sang to her (because he did so in the shower and was in the next dressing room), of how she punched co star Brian Donlevy (who she disliked) and almost flattened him, and she put a 40lb weight under her dress when Fredric March (who she disliked intensely) had to pick her up. One of the best was her first on screen kiss with Robert Preston. She was clearly traumatic but Preston had no difficulty with the number of takes to get the scene. In his shoes, I would probably have been the same.
January 17, 2021
Excellent
Thoroughly enjoyed reading about Veronica Lakes life and career. Nice to realize she is a real down to earth and honest person which is portrayed in her story. At some events in her life, such as her love for Andy, it was sad how she lost him and the callousness of his family not having the decency of notifying her of his death. At times in her life she was used by unscrupulous people, such as her second husband who kept turning down film projects without letting her know. This fed into her insecurities and made her feel as if Hollywood no longer wanted to work with her when it was her second husband who caused issues. Sad about her children and their both lack of interest. Also her book clarifies the fact she had alcohol problems but was not a druggie as many stories had mistakenly stated. It was nice to read Veronica was able to continue on with her acting career once she left Hollywood and she was happiest doing theatre work . But her films are enjoyable to see and I consider her a great actress. Would have liked to see her in a theatre production.
Thoroughly enjoyed reading about Veronica Lakes life and career. Nice to realize she is a real down to earth and honest person which is portrayed in her story. At some events in her life, such as her love for Andy, it was sad how she lost him and the callousness of his family not having the decency of notifying her of his death. At times in her life she was used by unscrupulous people, such as her second husband who kept turning down film projects without letting her know. This fed into her insecurities and made her feel as if Hollywood no longer wanted to work with her when it was her second husband who caused issues. Sad about her children and their both lack of interest. Also her book clarifies the fact she had alcohol problems but was not a druggie as many stories had mistakenly stated. It was nice to read Veronica was able to continue on with her acting career once she left Hollywood and she was happiest doing theatre work . But her films are enjoyable to see and I consider her a great actress. Would have liked to see her in a theatre production.
June 25, 2023
Veronica Lake's memoir is honest and blunt. What did you expect? Lake admits that early on she developed a front to shield her from much of the pain of losing parts and having to do parts in movies she felt were insipid. Unfortunately, I feel that front is also noticeable in some of her performances making her seem less accessible than some of her contemporaries. Yes, she was a fast star and also had a quick decline but what I didn't know was how she went from theater job to theater job long after she was no longer in films. Lake admits to her heavy drinking and her being a less than stellar parent and I could really sense a bit of melancholy at time. I did wonder why certain paragraphs, that made no sense, were left in. Maybe there was a contract that stipulated a certain number of pages. Recommended for any of Lakes' fans or people who enjoy Hollywood films of the 40s and 50s.
September 16, 2024
Overall, one of the most satisfying celebrity autobiographies I've read. The ghostwriter does a good job of making it a readable story without losing Lake's voice, and the story is fascinating and surprisingly dark.
Lake has a toooonnn of internalized misogyny going on and an irritating tendency to portray all her bad behavior as "tee hee, I was just so cute and fiery and sassy," so this wasn't quite a perfect read. However, I appreciated she wasn't afraid of being upfront about everything going on outside of the Hollywood bubble. Half this book was just about a random lady working in a bar, and it was just as interesting as the story of a starlet making movies.
I was ultimately left with the feeling I've learned quite a bit about the woman behind all the iconic glamour shots, which is what I want from this sort of thing, so ultimately, I enjoyed this book.
Lake has a toooonnn of internalized misogyny going on and an irritating tendency to portray all her bad behavior as "tee hee, I was just so cute and fiery and sassy," so this wasn't quite a perfect read. However, I appreciated she wasn't afraid of being upfront about everything going on outside of the Hollywood bubble. Half this book was just about a random lady working in a bar, and it was just as interesting as the story of a starlet making movies.
I was ultimately left with the feeling I've learned quite a bit about the woman behind all the iconic glamour shots, which is what I want from this sort of thing, so ultimately, I enjoyed this book.
March 10, 2020
Heartbreaking book, but Lake, herself, would smirk about my feelings. Irreverent and funny and extremely well-written, Lake pulls no punches when discussing her turbulent and unpredictable life--and discretion be damned. Her youth, motherhood, stardom are all covered with the same spirit. Lake's marriage to director Andre De Toth is particularly interesting, both on a domestic and economic level. Then there's the unorthodox path away from Hollywood, to theater and TV in New York, to eventual bartending and life in Miami. Maybe most would find her descent sad. Yet Lake isn't one to flinch from hard reality, including her drinking.
Still, it's a moving and informative memoir for fans of her work, and after reading this book, her personality is also missed.
Still, it's a moving and informative memoir for fans of her work, and after reading this book, her personality is also missed.
November 28, 2020
The peekaboo hairstyle made her a star and then the war department asked her cut it out because Rosie Riveter copy cats were getting their manes caught in the war machinery. The conventional wisdom is without the hair novelty she lost her stardom, but it probably had to do with how much trouble she was to work with. Joel McCrae said that life was two short to make two movies with Veronica Lake. She did make several films with the diminutive Alan Ladd, because she was small enough to make him look life-sized.
Late in life she realized that she ruined a pretty good marriage and that stardom went to her head. Alcohol abuse and a series of bad decisions lead to her decline and early death, but the book lives on as a cautionary tale, even if Connie wouldn't have seen it that way.
Late in life she realized that she ruined a pretty good marriage and that stardom went to her head. Alcohol abuse and a series of bad decisions lead to her decline and early death, but the book lives on as a cautionary tale, even if Connie wouldn't have seen it that way.
March 5, 2023
Tomboy in a petite vixen’s body. That was the feeling I got from this intimate peekaboo into Veronica’s mind. I thoroughly enjoyed the book which has a wonderful introduction by Eddie Muller, host to Noir Alley on TCM.
Veronica Lake was a born rebel and wanted to do things her way. One problem was she often very uncertain of where “her way” was going. She seemed to frequently live for the moment with little foresight into the future, hence a string of failed marriages and chronic financial difficulties. But she pulls no punches and leaves it all there on the page for us the see.
This book will probably get you the closest to understanding who Veronica Lake was than any other source currently available.
Veronica Lake was a born rebel and wanted to do things her way. One problem was she often very uncertain of where “her way” was going. She seemed to frequently live for the moment with little foresight into the future, hence a string of failed marriages and chronic financial difficulties. But she pulls no punches and leaves it all there on the page for us the see.
This book will probably get you the closest to understanding who Veronica Lake was than any other source currently available.
May 28, 2024
I love me some biographies and try to be as close to the original subject as much as possible. This was actually different to read, I say that a lot but I really mean it. You have to get used to her wording and pacing but once you do, you're revealed to a unpolished truth of a life. A life not just with a pride but with a reflection of what life gives everyone: suffering, grief, money and lack of money and more grief. Life takes and gives everyday and night and there's a pleasure in the good and bad. Her working class perspective reigns in a measure most Hollywood actors of either Era restrain from discussing but she's not afraid. I have to really commend her to that and her bravery of her life.
June 26, 2021
Connie the absent mom and shamelessly naive actress.
She has obvivosly left out a lot of the darker days of her life which is her right and I applaud her for it. One statement that stood out was about being a mother. So many children are raised with abuse and neglect turn out great while to all normal gauges well loved kids turn out crappy. I believe this because it happened in my life once with me and once with my daughter. MS Lake was a fighter but alcohol got the best of her and I think there are many gaps but why do we need to know everything! May she rest in peace and as an actress I loved her!
She has obvivosly left out a lot of the darker days of her life which is her right and I applaud her for it. One statement that stood out was about being a mother. So many children are raised with abuse and neglect turn out great while to all normal gauges well loved kids turn out crappy. I believe this because it happened in my life once with me and once with my daughter. MS Lake was a fighter but alcohol got the best of her and I think there are many gaps but why do we need to know everything! May she rest in peace and as an actress I loved her!
August 27, 2021
You never know with autobiographies how much is truth, how much is honesty, how much is omitted, how much is lies or just plain false memories. This one by Veronica Lake seems very honest to me even if it's quite short and some things are omitted. There's very little in here about her children for example but perhaps that too is saying something. It is, in the end, quite a sad story. Even with her ending the book trying to convince the reader she's at peace and happy it never truly feels like she is. Like she's deceiving herself. And just a few years after this book was published she would die and nobody would claim her remains.
March 3, 2022
I'm used to reading biographies of Hollywood celebrities, but this was actually an autobiography written by Veronica Lake herself, so I gave it a shot. I liked it quite a bit, and would have gone to a 4 1/2 star rating if I could. I've enjoyed her film work in several movies, and I got a kick out of her perspective on her career. She was a down-to-earth person, born in Brooklyn, eventually made her way to Hollywood, and broke into films in 1939. After a half-dozen 'extra-roles', she was cast in "I Wanted Wings" in 1940.
Her writing style was very matter-of-fact, a pleasant read for me. She died at age 50, from hepatitis, after long bouts with alcohol.
Her writing style was very matter-of-fact, a pleasant read for me. She died at age 50, from hepatitis, after long bouts with alcohol.
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